Government spokeswoman Eszter Vitályos announced at a government press briefing that the period for pre-natal loan-holders will be extended. She said the introduction of the system in 2019 had been followed by several “negative, vis-major type developments”, such as the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine or the energy crisis. All those hardships have made it difficult for families “to implement their plans to have babies”, she added. Vitályos noted that currently “a couple hundred” families were at the end of the five year period allowed to have the babies they had made a commitment for, but added that the number could amount to several thousand by the end of the year. “The government thinks it will be great help to those families if the deadline is extended by two years,” she said.
On another subject, Vitályos said the government has launched an online system for patients to make reservations for health services. Up to now, over 4,000 practices have joined the system and made their available dates accessible online, but “the number will increase by the month” and help to reduce waiting lists. Over 3 million patients have downloaded the application, with 2.5 million visits each month, she said, adding that in the first five days of July alone 504 reservations had been made.